Denise, 48, has admitted that her split from former husband Charlie Sheen was extremely nasty and she had to turn to reality TV to pay her mounting debts.

Speaking during an episode of the 'Daddy Issues' podcast, she said: ''Back during the show I did at E! ['Denise Richards: It's Complicated'] I had to do that. I had too many legal bills with my ex-husband.

''He said he wanted to bleed me dry, and he did. Those legal fees add up quite fast.

''It was difficult for me to get a job back then because I was perceived as doing something very [negative] with Charlie, so that was very hard - when you're misunderstood and you want to keep your personal life private and when it's out there.''

Denise and Charlie, 54 - who is the father of her daughters Sam, 15, and 14-year-old Lola - married in 2002 and Denise filed for divorce in 2005.

Meanwhile, the 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star recently revealed that Charlie once brought a prostitute to her house for Thanksgiving dinner.

She explained: ''My ex-husband's aged me terribly. Charlie came over for Thanksgiving for dinner a few years ago and he had a hooker in a car in the driveway, and he was afraid to tell me.

''I said, 'I'll set a f***ing plate.' Even a hooker deserves to have Thanksgiving dinner!''

And while Denise has tried to keep an amicable relationship with her ex over the years for the sake of their two daughters, she recently admitted that she feared she ''did a disservice'' to her girls by trying to conceal the full extent of her problems with Charlie from them.

She said previously: ''It's surreal when you start to see your kids become adults. It makes me cry. I just feel like I f***ed up a lot with their dad.

''I don't want them to look back at their childhood and remember [fights] ... My girls have been through a lot. How I chose to relate to the dysfunction that was going on with their father was to hide it from the kids. I don't know if I did a disservice or not. ... It just made me see how fast it goes. Life is so short and their childhood is so short.''

Denis recently married Aaron Phypers in 2018 and Aaron is planning to legally adopt her third child, Eloise, who she adopted back in 2011.